Over 9000 attend automation event!

The City of Brotherly Love has become the temporary center of the manufacturing world this week as Rockwell Automation hosts its 21st annual Automation Fair event. The event opened today to more than 9,200 manufacturing business leaders, industry analysts, and technology and service providers from around the world at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

The show continues tomorrow, wrapping up a week-long series of activities. Customers have access to safety- and process-focused customer events, a global media forum, technology training sessions, seminars, industry-focused forums, in-depth demonstrations, and more than 125 exhibitors showcasing the latest products and solutions from Rockwell Automation and its PartnerNetworkmember companies. Attendees are taking advantage of this collective expertise to learn about the latest innovations designed to help optimize their automation investments and achieve their business goals.

“Together with our PartnerNetwork companies, we bring customers an ecosystem of experience and expertise,” said Keith Nosbusch, chairman and CEO, Rockwell Automation. “The Automation Fair event enables customers see how innovative automation technologies can improve their business profitability while optimizing their equipment, production lines, plants and enterprise.”

Process industry customers traded insights at the Process Solutions User Group on Nov. 5 and 6. More than 600 process professionals converged at the Pennsylvania Convention Center to discuss trends and challenges affecting process industries, exchange best practices, and provide valuable feedback to Rockwell Automation on new PlantPAx process automation system features, functions and offerings. Attendees heard from Nancy Youn, director, Global Strategic Alliances, VMware, as she discussed the emergence of virtualization technologies in the process industries. In addition, 29 customer speakers shared how they overcome day-to-day automation challenges using the PlantPAx system.

Process professionals weren’t the only ones taking advantage of the period before the Automation Fair event. More than 300 participants attended the live Safety Automation Forum event on Nov. 6. The user event featured speakers from best-in-class manufacturers, including Kimberly-Clark, machine builder Automatic Handling International, and Grantek Systems Integration Inc., who shared procedures that improve safety, productivity and business performance. In the keynote address, Calvin Beyer, head of manufacturing at Zurich, explained how manufacturers can improve worker safety and boost the bottom line using a risk-management strategy based on leading indicators. Attendees also learned about the latest technologies, legal considerations and regulatory standards for machinery, process and electrical safety applications from industry experts at the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), IFA, and one of the world’s largest corporate law firms, Eversheds LLP. Those unable to attend the forum in person took part in the virtual event online.

Journalists and industry analysts from around the world also convened at the company’s Manufacturing Perspectives global media forum on Nov. 6. In addition to keynotes by Craig Giffi, vice chair and U.S. Leader, Consumer and Industrial Products, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP and Keith Nosbusch, chairman and CEO, Rockwell Automation, industry experts gave their insights on the issues facing today’s smart manufacturers:

• The reality of flexible production, with Peter Daenen, manufacturing manager, Ford South America and Frank Kulaszewicz, senior vice president, Architecture and Software, Rockwell Automation.


• How cloud solutions can enable flexible manufacturing without compromising security, with Fran Dougherty, CTO Worldwide Incubation Enterprise and Partner Group, Microsoft and Blake Moret, senior vice president, Control Products and Solutions, Rockwell Automation.


• The future of mobility, security and energy, with Maciej Kranz, vice president and general manager, Connected Industries Group, Cisco and Sujeet Chand, senior vice president and CTO, Rockwell Automation.

These activities, along with the Automation Fair event, provide attendees with a week’s worth of manufacturing wisdom from Rockwell Automation and its comprehensive, global network of partners.

Doors open on 19th annual automation event #AutoFair

More than 11,000 manufacturing business leaders, industry analysts and technology and service providers from around the globe are gathering today in Orlando, Fla., at the Orange County Convention Center where Rockwell Automation is hosting its 19th annual Automation Fair event #AutoFair.

The Automation Fair event brings together Rockwell Automation and its global network of partners to help attendees learn about the newest automated manufacturing technologies and solutions. The two-day event, held annually in different cities throughout the country, features customer training sessions, seminars and an exhibit floor populated with the latest products and solutions from Rockwell Automation and its partners.

The event showcases solutions geared toward smart, safe and sustainable manufacturing, emphasizing plantwide optimization, sustainable production and machine builder performance,” said Keith Nosbusch, chairman and CEO, Rockwell Automation. “During the next two days, experienced professionals will share their familiarity with optimizing operations, improving productivity, increasing throughput, and meeting quality and regulatory requirements.”

At the event, Rockwell Automation will announce several new offerings, including updates to its Integrated Architecture platform, FactoryTalk suite, PlantPAx Process Automation System and safety solutions, as well as dozens of other new products to help companies optimize their plants, improve performance of their

Updates to the Integrated Architecture platform – Rockwell Automation is focusing on the scale and modularization of its Integrated Architecture to help deliver multi-disciplined control and high performance for small to large systems. The new ControlLogix 5573 and 5575 programmable automation controllers simplify the synchronization of complex motion applications, with the ability to handle as many as 100 axes. For applications with less than 200 I/O points and a lower axes count, Rockwell Automation is introducing additional controllers in the Allen-Bradley CompactLogix form factor. The new additions leverage the EtherNet/IP network, helping manufacturers streamline control and information flow to achieve plantwide optimization.

Advancements to its visualization portfolio – The company is releasing new versions of its visualization and information software to speed users’ access to critical real-time and historical production data. The latest version of the Allen-Bradley PanelView Plus human-machine interface includes increased memory and the addition of several pre-installed software applications running on the Windows CE 6.0 operating system. The company also is releasing new versions of FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition and FactoryTalk View Supervisory Edition to help manufacturers turn real-time data into information that’s visible, useful and actionable across the organization.

Latest generation of the PlantPAx Process Automation System – The PlantPAx System Release 2.0 incorporates new features for high availability, device integration and asset management, design productivity, batch and sequencing control, and operations productivity. This includes an expanded high availability offering that helps manufacturers achieve end-to-end fault tolerance in critical control applications. Rockwell Automation also is announcing ten VMware-ready software products, which will help manufacturers leverage the benefits of virtualization. 

New family of safety relays – The new family of Allen-Bradley Guardmaster safety relays are available for machine builders and end users seeking to simplify safety-relay selection and reduce component inventory and lifecycle costs. Designed to meet new global functional safety standards, such as EN ISO 13849-1, the new line of safety relays includes seven basic units capable of supporting a broad range of safety devices in a variety of applications, including single and multi-zone configurations.

The Automation Fair event continues today and tomorrow with hands-on labs, workshops, technical sessions and more than 100 exhibitors, . Industry forums will provide attendees with the opportunity to learn from specialists and customers about energy and environment, global machine builders, life sciences, oil and gas, pulp and paper, and water wastewater.

The week’s events also included the company’s annual Manufacturing Perspectives global media forum. Industry experts and manufacturers spoke about current industry trends related to plantwide optimization, process automation, power and energy management, and original equipment manufacturer globalization and collaboration. The company also hosted its annual Safety Automation Forum and  Process Solutions User Group (PSUG), where the latest trends in safety and process automation were explored.

Latest Process Automation System announced #Autofair

PlantPAx System Release 2.0 from Rockwell features high availability, device integration and asset management, design productivity, batch and sequencing control, and operations productivity
Rockwell Automation announced the latest generation of its PlantPAx Process Automation System, an integrated control and information solution that helps manufacturers achieve plantwide optimization in a wide range of industries at the annual Rockwell Automation Fair (#autfair) in Orlando (FL US). PlantPAx System Release 2.0 builds on the success of the initial PlantPAx system, adding new features for high availability, device integration and asset management, design productivity, batch and sequencing control, and operations productivity. In addition, a new focused program will help OEMs and skid builders serving process industries reduce their overall costs and minimize their time to market, all while simplifying the integration of their equipment into the user’s process system.

“The Rockwell Automation PlantPAx Process Automation System is gaining significant adoption across a wide customer base,” said Steve Eisenbrown, senior vice president of Architecture and Software, Rockwell Automation. “It’s a strong foundation that allows us to add new platform capabilities and domain expertise to continue to expand our served market deeper into process applications.”

PlantPAx System Release 2.0 capabilities include:

System High Availability – Continuity of operations is critical for many process control applications and is a core discipline of the PlantPAx system. In particular, for 24/7 processes, the PlantPAx system focuses not only on the redundancy of system components, but also on maintainability – helping ensure that problems are detected and corrected without disrupting production. New capabilities include EtherNet/IP network support for redundant systems and Device Level Ring network topology that provides a highly available EtherNet/IP network without any additional infrastructure costs. A new I/O line – based on ICS Triplex technology – adds redundant I/O capability for the system. PlantPAx System Release 2.0 also includes new diagnostics and error checking to help operators and maintenance personnel identify and resolve the root cause of a problem before disrupting production.

Device Integration and Asset Management – The PlantPAx system has a broad portfolio of connectivity options, including HART, Profibus-PA, and Fieldbus Foundation. PlantPAx System Release 2.0 expands on these offerings for an even more scalable portfolio. Another important addition is the integration and asset management of other devices in the system, such as intelligent motor control centers, variable frequency drives, condition monitoring and power control components. Drives, for example, are now exposed via icons and faceplates in the visualization layer, and managed in the asset management layer to provide disaster recovery, automatic backup and restore of drive configuration, and change auditing.

Design Productivity – A focus on design productivity helps enable Rockwell Automation delivery partners to bring a more consistent, modular solution to users more quickly and with less human error. Careful evaluation of the typical DCS configuration workflows has revealed a number of steps that can be simplified or accelerated. This includes initial sizing and architecture design, the creation of reusable engineering and template objects, and engineering and deployment tools for objects and diagnostics in the PlantPAx library.

Batch and Sequencing Control – PlantPAx System Release 2.0 addresses the entire spectrum of batch applications. At the most complex level, new batch server software adds key capabilities like intelligent recipes, improved runtime user control, expanded data collection and reporting, and enhanced material management. For simpler sequencing requirements, such as those encountered in OEM skids or simple startup sequences, PlantPAx System Release 2.0 provides an elegant alternative to traditional custom sequencing solutions. The new Logix Batch and Sequence Manager is an S-88 compliant engine that offers simple configuration and execution and minimizes costly and risky design and maintenance aspects associated with custom code. This unit-scale sequencer also easily integrates into a higher-level batch strategy, helping ensure that OEM solutions, such as clean-in-place skids, easily plug in to plantwide production operations.

Operations Productivity – The PlantPAx approach to operations productivity is a three-tiered solution. At the most basic level, the Rockwell Automation historian collects key process data from within the controller chassis or via a server at the site level. Data is then analyzed in an information and decision support portal. This portal provides appropriate information about the production system based on user role. For example, maintenance personnel might leverage reports showing information such as motor runtimes or valve diagnostics, contrasted with the information needs of operations or quality control departments. Then, as the third tier, PlantPAx System Release 2.0 offers industry-leading optimization solutions. This optimization leverages advanced control techniques for single loops or unit operations or more advanced model predictive solutions for an entire line or plant area.

New Focused Program for Process OEMs and Skid Builders
“Users spend a significant amount of their engineering time – up to 60 percent in some cases – integrating equipment from various vendors into their DCS,” said Som Chakraborti, Process Business director, Rockwell Automation. “PlantPAx System Release 2.0 helps customers reduce this non-value add expense. It introduces a set of architectures and efficiency tools to help equipment manufacturers deliver their scope quicker, and offers end-users simpler integration to their process automation system."

According to ARC Advisory Group research director Larry O’Brien, “Forming collaborative partnerships with process OEMs and skid builders will be a key ingredient in the future success of process automation suppliers. For an OEM or a skid builder, adopting a standard approach to automation such as the PlantPAx system means they can eliminate a lot of custom engineering, reduce time to start up, and provide better connectivity to the rest of the manufacturing enterprise. Rockwell Automation has an advantage in this case because they have been forming these relationships for years.”

PlantPAx System Release 2.0 is available in the first quarter of 2011.